Provincetown Council on Aging

Board Meeting, Feb. 9, 2006

Present: Gerry Brennan, Chair, Florence Alexander, Greg Howe, Glades Johnstone;

Friends: Marge Perry, V.Chair, Vern Wilson, Treasurer

Meeting called to Order at 2:59pm

Correspondence: sympathy card sent to Cheryl Andrews in the name of the COA Board,

on the death of her father. Response from the Town Manager on “Town

Managers for Meals.”

Director’s Report: Cape-wide COA Legislative Breakfast, Fri., Mar.3, 9:30am – call

Val for reservations – rides available. Val is still working on a recast of the low-

income Senior tax exemption for Town meeting.

Friends: Vern reported not much activity in Jan. The Annual Appeal is now approx.

$5580.00 [an all-time record].

Salt: Val will write to the Police Chief to request budget support for lock-boxes. Sgt.

Benjamin has called Greg to share that our original Deputy Sheriff TRIAD

Leader is back, so that there will probably be an increase in activity in the future.

Old Business: gathering data for Sr. Tax exemption Article for Town Meeting Warrant.

The Chair received a favorable and positive response from the Dir. Of Public

Works on our ‘punch list’ for improving the physical plant.

The Jan. ceramics & painting classes are finished, with good numbers. A new

ceramics class will start in March.

Volunteer Coordinator: Diana Fabbri will split time between the COA and the

Town Clerk’s Office.

Board vacancies: As of now, there are two vacancies – one board member and

one Alternate. Paul Mendes has promised to file an application with the Town

Clerk, and will be approved as soon as he does so.

We need a new Cooking Class Coordinator.

Calendar: Feb. – White line print class with Kathi Smith.

Mar. – Yearrounders Festival, Mar. 11, noon to 3:00pm at Town Hall. Greg

Fudge. Greg will get Friends banner, cookbooks, and info. Packets.

Questions on teacher’s compensation. The Board voted to authorize $45.00 per

class fees for instructors.

Liz Hartsgrove has volunteered to read her poems. Congregate lunch was

suggested as venue, but too much noise. How about a Senior Coffee

House, with local writers invited to read their work?

There will be no COA Board Report for Town Meeting this year. The Director has submitted a Report, as usual.

Water & Sewer Board:

With the urging of the Director, we had requested a meeting with representatives of the Water & Sewer Board, to see if some relief could be sought for low-income Seniors from the dramatic escalation in sewer bills. Jonathan Senaiko, Anne Lord, Austin Knight and Dana Farris [DPW staff], were kind enough to meet with us at 4:00pm, as previously arranged.

Rates are set at state level, and are not controlled by the W&S Board – as explained in recent letters to the Banner by the Chair and Mr. Farris. The crunch point is that Town meeting determined that all sewer costs would be borne only by users. Last year the water enterprise fund had a deficit of $39,000. As more properties hook up to the sewer, costs, and hopefully, fees should go down. The W&S Board recommended that we address the Selectmen directly – since they control further movement – such as an extension on Shank Painter Rd., and the question of who would be allowed to hook up.

Deferred payments are possible – at 8% interest, with a lien on the property. Seniors

who might otherwise be interested don’t like liens.

If submitted by 3/3, a ten tax-payer petition might get on the Warrant for Town Meeting.

After the W7S Board left, at 4:45pm, the COA Board voted to hold a pre-Town Meeting session on Thurs., March 23, from 12:30pm to 2:30pm with lunch and featured speakers invited from The W7S Board, the School Comm., the N.E. Deaconess Assoc., and the Finance Comm.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:03 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Greg Howe

Sec. pro-tem